


Don't Look Behind You (there's footsteps in the attic)

by fluffynarwhal



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: Actor Louis Tomlinson, Beware, Bottom Harry, Bottom Louis, Cody and Louis friendship, Everyone Loves Louis, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Ghost Hunter AU, Ghost Hunter Harry Styles, M/M, Smut, THERE IS A LOVE SCENE IN A MOVIE BETWEEN CODY CHRISTIAN AND LOUIS TOMLINSON, Top Harry, Top Louis Tomlinson, Tyler Hoechlin and Louis friendship, Well maybe a little, cody has a crisis about sprayberry so obviously louis helps him talk through it, hes lovable, its nothing graphic, louis is good friends with the teen wolf boys so expect that, most of the references within the haunted locations are from sam and colby videos, no angst whatsoever, referenced SAM AND COLBY, some sexy ass haunted location smut, tyler helps with an investigation
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-19
Updated: 2019-09-23
Packaged: 2020-10-24 07:29:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 17,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20702219
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fluffynarwhal/pseuds/fluffynarwhal
Summary: Mr. Tomlinson,I'm the lead investigator on Travel Channel's Haunting Answers. In the upcoming weeks, Haunting Answers will be taping a season strictly with guest appearances and recommended locations. I and my team would like to formally invite you to be a guest the show.Sincerely, Harry Styles.An AU in which Louis is an actor who doesn't believe in ghosts, Harry is a ghost hunter who suffers from nightmares, Niall is an idiot who's not Louis' manager, and Liam just wants to sleep through the night during an investigation.





	1. Movie Premiers and Cocks

**Author's Note:**

> OH MY DEAR GOD HELLO HI HOW ARE YOU DOVES? 
> 
> So I told you i'd be bringing back the paranormal au's. This one is a bit different. Heed the tags please. Cody Christian and Louis Tomlinson are both actors. They are chosen to act in a movie where they share a love scene. Nothing is graphic or detailed, but you still should know it's there. This one is going to be equal parts spooky and funny. Or, at least me trying to be funny. Thank you to everyone from my twitter who dropped names to be used. 
> 
> You'll also notice the locations Harry decides to go to are all videos from Sam and Colby, two Youtubers whom I adore and love with my entire heart. Each location will have little details that you'll find if you've seen the guys' channel. Please enjoy my loves! This one is for Meg, Stan twitter, and the one person who told me the idea was stupid. 
> 
> This will be split up into four or five parts to bare with me.

Louis didn't believe in ghosts. He didn't believe in spirits or demons or anything paranormal for that matter. His mind was logical, coming up with an answer to any situation where 'paranormal' might be involved. 

Louis _didn't_ believe in ghosts. Past tense. Let me tell you a story. 

It takes a lot to scare Louis. Jump scares in scary movies, haunted houses, and clowns can't even make him jump. The scariest of movies that can make a grown man cry doesn't phase him. It's odd, the stoic view he has on those things. But nothing could have prepared him for his own scary movie. 

As an actor, Louis has had offers to lead in romantic comedies, tragedies, and even the rare biopic movies. He's starred alongside Cody O'Brien, Tyler Hoechlin, Angelina Jolie, and the beautiful Shailene Woodley. He's been to as many award shows as other A-List actors. He's been an advocate for the LGBTQ+ community for a long as he can remember and hosted three events for the charity. (Louis is one of the very few male actors who still advocate for his chosen charity for young, gay actors in training.)

In his years of acting, Louis had starred in an abundant amount of different genres. Anywhere from comedies to tragedies, and his favorite genre of all, horror. 

When he was still a teen, Louis landed his first role in a paranormal thriller. He played a secondary character, but still had more than enough screen time to get his name out there. From there, he was contacted to lead a movie starring Skeet Ulrich and Brie Larson. _Whisper_, was the name of the movie, and was the one that took Louis straight to A-List. 

Louis didn't believe in ghosts and didn't get scared easily because his job made it so. _Whisper_ was a paranormal type of movie with jump scares and scary ghost faces and darkly lit hallways with someone whispering creepily into his ear. He was able to set aside his fears and do his job, blaming every noise and bump he heard on the special effects director. 

Louis didn't believe in ghosts. Which is why he was confused as to why he received an email, six hours before he's supposed to be at the premier for his new movie, from a paranormal tv show's lead investigator asking for him to guest star. 

_ Mr. Tomlinson,  _

_ I'm the lead investigator on Travel Channel's Haunting Answers. My team and I would like to offer our congratulations on your new upcoming movie, Birthday Boy, and even more so on your event next month with the LGBTQ+ charity. It's lovely to see that kind of work done by an actor like yourself, especially with as young as you are.  _

_ In the upcoming weeks, Haunting Answers will be taping a season strictly with guest appearances and recommended locations. I and my team would like to formally invite you to be a guest the show. _

_ If you do decide to join us, I'll set something up with your manager and mine. After we get legalities taken care of, we'll be setting off on a weeklong shoot. We will be releasing 2-3 episodes with you, so we'll have plenty to work with. The first location we'll be visiting is going to be the Queen Mary Ship in California. From there, over to Colorado to the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. After that is Waverly Hills Sanatorium in Kentucky. As a precautionary measure, we will also be flying out to Las Vegas, where Zak Bagans has agreed to let us shoot in his haunted museum. We always want to have options in case one location doesn't work out in the end.  _

_ I really hope to hear from you soon, Mr. Tomlinson.  _

_ Sincerely,  _

_ Harry Styles. _

Louis drops his phone in his frozen stupor. Carol and Leah are bustling around him with makeup brushes and hairspray, trying to get him premier ready. He seeks out a solid surface blindly with his hand and falls to a chair in a huff. 

"Lou," Leah chides, fussing over the crease in Louis' hair as he runs his fingers through it, "you're going to give me an ulcer." 

Louis shakes his head and reaches for his phone again, opening his contacts and dialing his idiot friend. 

"So you got the email, I'm guessing?" a voice answers the phone. Louis groans loudly and pinches the bridge of his nose. 

"Niall, what the fuck did you do?" he grits, swatting at Carol's hand poised over his nose with a brush. "Jesus, ladies, I have hours," he hisses. Carol smacks Louis' head lightly and carries on with her brushing.

Perrie chooses that moment to walk through the door with a silver silk cocktail dress. Her blue hair is curled and sitting in a low bun near her neck. Normally, Louis would have time to ogle her and make her blush before they left, but he just can't manage it. "Hours until the premier," she says, "but you have forty-five minutes before you're supposed to be at the Louis Vuitton for your suit, and then it's off to a quick meeting with your lawyer to discuss the details of the charity events." 

Louis rolls her eyes and goes back to his phone call, putting it on speaker. "I'm sitting on my desk chair in boxers with half a pound of makeup on my face, and an entire bottle of hairspray in my hair. I have to leave in half an hour and I just happen to see a certain ghost hunter is emailing me," Louis rushes. It's as if time stops, Perrie, Carol, and Leah all pausing and staring at him expectantly. 

Niall laughs loudly and breaks the moment. "As your manager -"

"For fucks sake, Niall, you're not his anything," Perrie gripes, taking the phone away from Louis who drops his head and whimpers. "What the hell did you do to break him?" 

"Ask him about Harry Styles, Pez," he answers, giggling quietly. Louis groans and falls back against the chair. 

"Tomlinson, if you don't get your hair off that leather, I'm going to ruin you," Leah sneers. Louis rolls his eyes and sits back up again. 

Perrie walks over to Louis and fixes a strand of hair. "Niall, what have we said about getting involved with Louis' personal obsessions?" 

"Hey!" Louis squeaks, his tone offended. 

"To not to," Niall answers forlornly. 

Perrie grins and pulls Louis up by his hand, leading him to the closet where she fishes out a tee shirt and joggers. "If I have to deal with another lawsuit, I'm putting it on you," she says to Niall. 

Louis dresses and carefully makes sure he doesn't hit his hair or makeup. He clears his throat and shakes his head at Perrie's words. "He wanted to – um – film with me?" his voice cracks. "Invited me to be a guest on the show for a week. Something about going to different locations or some shit." 

"Oh my god, Niall, you're a genius!" Perrie squeals. "Forward me that email, love," she smiles. Louis whines and slips on socks and shoes before giving Perrie his phone. 

"You know how I feel about the ghost stuff," he says petulantly. Perrie hands him his phone again and tosses him a bottle of cologne. 

"Which is exactly why you're doing this," she replies, her heels clicking against the tile flooring of his hallway as she disappears. “Come along kitten, we’ve got a premier to get you to.”

Louis was fucked. 

Later, when his car finally pulled up to the premier, Louis fixes his tie and shoves his phone in his pocket. With one final look in the mirror, he nods to the driver who comes around to open his door. The lights from camera flashes are blinding, and the screams could bust an eardrum, but Louis fucking loves it. 

He loves everything about premiers; meeting fans, doing interviews, catching up with friends. He loves every second. Louis lives for big premier nights. 

For _Birthday Boy_, Louis knows that the interviews are going to be a bit more on the revealing side since it contains a pretty explicit love scene between himself and his costar, Cody Christian. It was Louis' first gay sex scene he's ever filmed, and Cody's first ever sex scene. 

The premise of the movie was simple. Louis' character, Dean, is a TA in college. He meets Cody's character, Charlie, when he picks the boy up off the side of the road one night after a college party. Dean was called to go pick up a few other students, but instead found Charlie. Throughout the movie, Dean helps Charlie get the help he needs with a debilitating mental condition, while also falling in love with him in the process. Charlie believes he's straight up until he meets Dean, but still tries to fight it every step of the way. From the moment Charlie is released from the hospital, Dean shows him what it's like to feel loved, to be loved unconditionally. To say Louis sobs on the last day of the shoot is an understatement. 

Knowing him personally, Cody is one of Louis' favorite actors in that age group. While the boy is just a few years younger than Louis, he's wise beyond his years. 

He handled the love scene with Louis beautifully, and didn't tackle it like other actors did. Cody let the scene play out just like it needed to, letting Louis take the reins. While Louis was used to topping in love scenes, and in his actual sex life, it was different with Cody’s character, so he did end up bottoming. He was worried Cody would get weirded out and back out of the entire scene, but he took everything that came to him in stride. 

They decided not to do any kind of practice with the actual scene, or with kissing. They wanted to go into blind, letting the scene take them whichever way; letting their characters tell them what was just right and not enough. Dean and Charlie's minds would help them when it was time to make certain movies. 

For three days before the scene, the two boys stayed away from each other. That way, it wasn’t just them missing each other, it was their characters missing each other. The day of the shoot, Louis kept away from Cody until the last minute. 

When they arrived on set, the director got them set up as soon as possible. Then, it was on. 

Louis approached Cody once they were filming, the direction Dean was given was to go slow for Charlie’s sake. At that point during the movie, Charlie had just confessed to Dean that he loved him, and was ready to come out to his family. Louis stepped up close to Cody, offering a small smile that the camera caught. 

Charlie was supposed to be shaking only slightly in his hands and his exhale, which Cody translated beautifully. Louis hooks his finger through Cody’s own and lifts their hands, lacing their fingers together. He takes their hands and places Cody’s on his hip, sliding his hand up the boy’s arm. Louis feels the way Cody shakes, his fingers trembling against his skin. 

With gentle kisses, trembling thighs, and roaming hands, Cody impressed Louis more than anything. It was like Louis was Dean and Cody was Charlie for the day of shooting. He didn't focus on Cody personally so much as he did thinking about what he'd do in this situation. He was slow, patient, easy. Not wanting to push Charlie more than he was ready. 

At the very end, the director called for something to add a little playfulness to the scene. Cody sat up with Louis still sitting in his lap as they moved in tandem, and wraps one arm around Louis’ waist, holding him up against his chest, kissing over Louis’ collarbones. Louis leaned in to kiss his forehead, smiling against his skin. Cody, the little shit, took that moment to reach around and move the sheet away from Louis’ backside, and his greedy little grabby hands grappled Louis’ ass, smacking it just the slightest bit. It shocked him so much that Louis gasped and laughed loudly and slid his arms around Cody’s neck, kissing him roughly and nipping against the boy’s lips, giggling even when the director yelled cut. 

In the end, it's the most sensual, heartbreaking, enjoyable scene Louis has ever filmed. 

And he's managed to have an onscreen scene with Natalie Portman. It wasn't anything special, just a short montage of her strapping him down to a chair with a pair of handcuffs and going - 

That's not important. 

What is important, is the fact that when Louis spots Cody in the middle of an interview, Cody glances his way and lights up. Louis makes his way over to him first, promising pap pictures afterwards. 

"My love," Louis grins, wrapping the boy up in a hug and kissing the side of his face. 

"What a surprise, Louis Tomlinson!" the interview laughs. 

"How are you man?" Cody asks, fluffing up Louis' fringe and patting him on the cheek. 

"I'm good," he replies, straightening the boy’s tie. "I didn't mean to crash, I just wanted to say hello before the crazy hits," he tells the interviewer. The woman laughs and waves his comment off. 

"Nonsense," she laughs. "Cody and I were just talking about what it was like to film with each other." 

Cody glances over at him and yanks Louis over by the belt loop. In his ear, he whispers, "She wants to know if we actually fucked after they called cut." 

Louis startles himself with a laugh. "It was really great working with Cody," he tells her. "I remember seeing his work on Teen Wolf with Hoechlin and O'Brien." 

"You don't want to know what Tyler said to me when I told him about the movie," Cody groans, shaking his head. 

"Oh, I'd love to know what he thought," Louis replies. To the interviewer, he says, "It's really cool to have friends all over the industry who've all worked together. I feel like I'm an adopted child to the Teen Wolf family."

The woman smiles. "I can imagine! Louis, how does Cody fare up against Tyler Hoechlin and Dylan O'Brien in terms of acting?" 

Louis scoffs and slides his arm around Cody's waist possessively. "Cody is just as up there as Leo DiCaprio," he says, sass evident in his tone. "Yes, Hoechlin and O'Brien are incredible actors, and they deserve their success. However, I can honestly say I've never shared any kind of scene with them, like I did in this movie with Cody." 

"Awh, thanks man," Cody says, his voice wavering just slightly. The boy leans over and kisses Louis' cheek. "You're the best love scene partner," he adds, giggling at his own joke. Louis chuckles and squeezes his waist. 

"Speaking of that scene," she begins. "I think we can all agree those previews were exceptionally steamy, no?" 

Cody clears his throat and smiles. "Trust me, the previews are nothing compared to the movie." 

"Is that so? Louis, you've acted in various...straight... sexual scenes, but this is your first one that isn't," she said. 

Louis could tell by the way the woman spoke she was nervous asking the question. Even Cody tapped on his back and glanced at him quickly. 

"My first gay love scene?" he offers patiently. The woman deflates slowly. "Don't worry, love. I had to explain it to my mates back home. Being an actor, I'm faced with many different jobs that require tons of different focus points. This movie is my very first gay love scene, technically, but to me it's just a love scene. It doesn't matter whether or not you're filming with a man or a woman, it's going to come across the same. Love, hate, pining. It doesn't matter." 

"I also think Louis brought something different to the table here," Cody interrupts. "When we were filming, we both decided to go into blind. My character is just beginning to take hold of his sexuality and who he is during that time, while Louis' character has been out for years. In more ways than one, Louis really showed me what to do, and what not to do with my character and with my acting." 

Louis pokes his costar in the ribs. "Don't make me blush, Mr. Christian," he chuckles. "But honestly, it was easy to work with Cody on this project because he's very open to suggestions and direction. Sometimes, if he did something that didn't fit the scene, I'd offer an idea, and within minutes, he was good to go." 

Cody snorts and pinches Louis' nipple. "You're just saying that because you're still upset over sheet thing." 

Louis gasps faux horror and puts his hand against his chest. "How very _dare_ you?! That was traumatic for me!" 

The boy rolls his eyes and turns to the interviewer, "When you see the love scene, you'll understand," he giggles. Louis rolls his eyes. 

From there, Louis drags Cody away from the harsh woman, forcing him into pap pictures. "If you follow me through here, we can be inside in thirty minutes," Louis says into his ear while they're posing. Reluctantly, the younger boy agrees and stays with Louis from interview to interview, doing them all together. 

Inside, Cody steals too champagne glasses off a counter and hands one to Louis. "Thank you for that out there," he speaks once he's taken a sip. 

Louis shakes his head and pats him on the shoulder. "I remember what it was like for my first love scene with a female. All the interviews wanted us together to talk about it. I can only imagine how you're feeling right now." 

Cody shrugs and hooks his arm through Louis' weaving through the crowds to the front row where they'll be sitting. "I guess it doesn't bother me as much. I mean, it's the first onscreen love scene, but it's not like I don't know where things go." 

Louis snickers and shakes the hand of the director and producer before pulling Cody into their seats. "I just know it's rough to get questions about that sort of thing." Cody arches a brow and finishes off his glass. Louis sighs, "I just came out publicly when I landed that movie with Natalie Portman. It was my first ever scene like that and they wanted me to do half an ass shot." 

"At least in this one it's a full one," Cody quips. Louis swats his arm. 

"Anyway, when the movie was released, I had so many questions about whether or not I was gay," he finishes. "It's like they didn't even realize I had a boyfriend at the time." 

Cody lets out a heavy breath and unbuttons his suit jacket, leaning back in the chair. "The headlines are going to go crazy tomorrow," he smiles slyly, already pulling out his phone. 

Louis looks over at him and snuffles at the boy's eyebrow wiggle. "Why, my dear boy, are you saying you want to add fuel to the fire?" he asks. 

"I think it's just about time to take a selfie." 

"Caption it something sexy, make the fans want to go see the movie." 

"I've got it," Cody gasps. A minute later Cody is snapping a picture of him kissing Louis on the cheek while Louis laughs. It's a cute picture, if we're being honest, so Louis has him send it to him. 

Just before the movie begins, Louis and Cody collectively break twitter with them posting the identical picture. 

_ CodyChristian : my favorite love scene partner, taught me everything I need to know _

_ LouisTomlinson: you have this little beauty to thank for a shot of my ass in Birthday Boy. say thank you Cody  _

After the movie ends, Louis hauls Cody up by his arm and brings him on stage with some of the other cast and crew. He hugs the boy, smiling and trying not to tear up from the rush of emotions. His costar just wraps his arms around Louis’ waist and holds him tight despite the roar of the audience. Louis swears he feels a tear fall to his neck, but doesn’t bring it up. 

“As someone who’s worked with both of these guys before, I have to say, this has been one of my favorite projects to work on,” Mike, their director, spoke into a microphone. Louis pulled away and wiped at his eyes, even reaching forward to rub his thumb across Cody’s cheek. He makes his way over to Mike and grabs another mic. After picking one up for himself, he goes back to his costar and wraps an arm around the boy’s waist. 

“First off, I just want to say thank you to our incredible directors, production team, writers, and each and every member of the crew that made this possible,” he says grinning like mad and trying to catch a few stray tears. “It’s been such a pleasure to work with these guys and gals.” 

Cody steals the mic and wipes his eyes. “I just want to take a second to congratulate Louis and the rest of his amazing group of people on the success of this project,” he chuckles. “Working with Louis was incredible for me in terms of learning from him as an actor and as a friend. When I showed up on set that first day, I remember calling Tyler Hoechlin because I was worried about making a bad impression.” 

The audience laughs and Mike points out a familiar beefcake in the audience. “Cody, I think he’s sitting right there, don’t say anything you’ll regret,” he says. 

The boy snaps his head in that direction and spots him, waving slightly. “Tyler, my friend, do you remember me calling you because I was so scared?” Tyler snorts and nods, holding his thumb up in agreement. Cody turns back to Louis. “I had just walked onto the trailer lot after I called him, and here comes a half-naked Louis Tomlinson running through the actors’ trailers.” 

The audience loses it. They erupt in laughter, clapping along with the crew. Louis steals the mic again and holds up his hand. “I was getting fit for clothes and forgot I left my food cooking in my trailer!” he defends. 

“You hadn’t been there for an hour!” Josephine, a producer giggles. Louis rolls his eyes and laughs despite himself. 

Cody pulls him back in and holds him close. “Working with Louis was something I’ll remember when I’m old and senile. He’s taught me more in the past year than I think anyone ever has. So, to Louis, thank you for being my first onscreen love scene partner, and thank you to the team for letting me be part of this project.” 

No one says anything when Louis feels his bottom lip trembling and he hugs the boy tightly, crying into each other’s neck. 

“Tyler!” Louis squeals, weaving through the crowd of people and jumping into Hoechlin’s arms when he turns and braces himself. "How's my favorite werewolf?" Tyler snuffles and lifts Louis off the ground with glee. Once the movie ended, everyone was invited to attend the after party, with a late dinner and time to talk to everyone. 

“Why didn’t you tell me it was going to end that way?” he asks once he puts Louis back down on the ground. 

Louis shrugs. “Honestly, I hoped they would change it,” he admits. “Cody and I were gutted when we read the script together.” 

Tyler nods and looks around Louis’ small frame. “Where did he run off to? You two have been joined at the hip tonight.” 

“No one can resist the Tommo charm, mate,” Louis smirks. “I’m sure he stopped to see some of the All American cast. He mentioned they would come out. Hopefully, Sprayberry will be here and they can sort their shit out.”

“Sprayberry?” Tyler wonders. Louis nods solemnly. “I didn’t even know they had shit going on. No one tells me anything anymore.” 

Louis sighs heavily. “You wouldn’t have noticed it honestly.” A waiter walks by with a tray of champagne and Louis takes one, sipping at it. “They’re both pretty secretive about their own lives, but if Dylan does show up with Sammy, watch Cody’s face.” Tyler snorts and nods his head, looking over his shoulder for the boy. 

“So,” Tyler drawls after a moment, “you couldn’t have warned me about the love scene?” 

Louis shakes his head and giggles. “Would you have watched the entire movie if I had told you?” he asks slyly. The older man scoffs and rolls his eyes. 

“Cody told me he was playing a love interest for you,” he says taking a long sip of his beer. 

“Yeah you can say that,” the actor snickers. “It was really – erm – enlightening, if you will,” he adds just to mess with him. 

Tyler fakes a gag and shakes his head. “It was like watching my younger brothers get at it, Louis. I just – ” 

“Hoechlin, do you know where Lou went?” a voice behind Tyler speaks. Cody appears and embraces his old costar in a hug, bumping their fists together. “Good to see you man,” he says. 

“You too,” Tyler smiles. “_Lou_ and I were just talking about you.” 

Cody grimaces and steps closer to Louis to hide from Hoechlin. “Should I be worried?” he asks Louis. 

“Hah, no,” he replies. “He’s offended we didn’t tell him about the scene,” Louis explains. The younger boy chuckles and shrugs. 

“God, you and Sprayberry have a thing about this now,” Cody groans. “He’s here with Samantha,” Louis makes a personal note on the way he rolls his eyes when he says the girl’s name and winks at Tyler’s semi-shocked face, “and he said the same thing.” 

“Don’t worry, babe,” Louis smirks, throwing an arm on the boy’s shoulder. “They’re just jealous.” 

Tyler gags again. “You two were never this handsy with anyone else.” 

Louis kisses Cody’s cheek. “We’ve seen each other’s cocks now, Tyler. For at least six hours.” 

“You two are disgusting.” 

Cody leans in close as if he were going to whisper. To Hoechlin, he grins and says, “I know what Louis’ ass feels like. I got a good handful.” 

“Oh my dear god,” Tyler whines. “Please don’t.” 

“Love, do you remember when I showed you how to do that thing with your hips?” Louis wonders, snickering. 

“Don’t answer that.” 

Cody nods seriously. “Of course, I do, Lou. You’re an amazing teacher.” 

“Please stop talking.” 

Louis takes Tyler’s beer from his hand and wraps his lips around it, tipping it up and taking a swig. Beside him, Cody hums, “I remember that look very well.” 

Tyler punches them both in the arm and leaves quickly. 

The next morning, Louis wakes up at the sound of his phone with an excruciating migraine. Looking to his left he finds Cody fast asleep and still wearing his dress shirt. After the premier, Louis brought his drunk ass home and put him to sleep. 

Cody groans at the noise and smacks his lips together. Louis snorts and pulls up his phone to find another email from Harry Styles. 

_ So excited to have you on board with us, Louis. _

_ Harry Styles.  _

Oh shit. Louis’ doing the show. He’s actually – oh _fuck_. 

Louis grunts loudly and throws his phone on the ground. Cody turns over and throws an arm around Louis’ stomach, pressing his head against his chest and sliding their legs together under the sheets. “_Such_ a fucking bottom,” Louis snickers to himself and wraps his arms around his friend, quickly falling back to sleep. He could cry about the show later. 

Niall was going to wish he didn’t get involved. 


	2. Queen Mary

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi hello my darlings. Here's the second installment. For this chapter, special shoutout to Alliyah, Maddie, Ally, and Britt for being part of this. also shout out to my glorious Kansas boys, Sam and Colby. I'll add a tag for them even if they're only mentioned. 
> 
> You'll notice that the events that happen during this chapter regarding the Haunted Queen Mary Ship is real, some of the events did in fact happen to Sam and Colby and other adventurers. In the same, the events from the Biltmore hotel in LA mentioned are written to fit the scene. In Sam and Colby's video, they don't get stuck in the elevator, but it opens up again after shutting. I tried to put my own spin on it so I'm not just ripping them off. 
> 
> Please also try to keep in mind when writing a paranormal tv show au, it's a bit hard to make it spooky. I'm trying my best, so please go easy on me. 
> 
> The story, like I said before, will not be very long. It's supposed to be a short little thing for people to enjoy. Notice that this chapter gets into some actual plot, so there's that lol. 
> 
> I do hope you enjoy it, though. Have fun reading! 
> 
> x

Louis should have known the moment he walked in to the building he should have prepared himself. He'd already called Niall and bitched him out for signing him up for the show to begin with, and then called Perrie to see if she'd let him cancel. After Perrie, Louis called Hoechlin and had a minor freak out. Hoechlin told him to man up and take control of the situation before hanging up on him. 

As he walks in, Louis meets with the front desk and lets her know he's here to see Harry Styles. From there, she leads him down a hallway to a large office with the producer of the show and Harry. 

The television show didn't do the boy - no, man - justice. He's gorgeous, is the thing, Louis thinks as he walks through the door. Harry is on his feet walking over to meet him with a wide smile and an outstretched hand. 

The boy's eyes are such a beautiful shade of green, the inner circle near the black of his eye melting into ocean blue. Louis takes his hand, callused and firm, smiling softly. Harry's hair is pulled up into a bun on the top of his head, little fly aways framing his face. He is dressed up for the occasion, rocking a pair of light wash bell bottom jeans, and a pretty little blue button up with the top three buttons undone. Basically, Louis is doing everything he can not devour him. 

"Mr. Tomlinson, welcome to Haunting Answers headquarters," Harry says, moving away from Louis and heading back to the table. "This is our producer, Alliyah. She'll be someone you see fairly often this week." 

"Louis Tomlinson," he says, holding out his hand. Alliyah stands and hauls Louis into a hug. 

"We hug in this studio, my friend," she chuckles. 

"Well alright then," Louis laughs. 

Once everything had been discussed and settled, Harry gave Louis his plane tickets and information about the locations. They don't get much time to talk, but it's to be expected. Louis bids the two goodbye and heads for his car. 

"Louis!" he hears behind him. Louis turns and finds Harry running out to meet him. His hair flops every time he steps, and his cheeks are just the slightest bit of pink. "Hey, sorry, I didn't get to thank you for coming in today," Harry explains. "It just - it really means a lot you could do this on such a short notice." 

Louis leans back against his car and nods. "It's my pleasure," he smirks. He's a flirt. Sue him. 

Harry lets out a shaky breath and grins. "It's really cool to have you on this week. I was also thinking about getting one of your costars involved as well," he suggests. 

Louis quirks a brow. "It depends on what costar you're wanting to bring on," he answers. "Cody just flew back to New York to start working on promo for his new single and music video. O'Brien is in Hawaii filming the new spy movie. I don't have a lot of options to give you." 

Harry shakes his head and smiles. "What about Tyler Hoechlin?" 

"You want Hoechlin, scared of a damn balloon, on the show?" Louis questions. "If you think I'm going to be bad, I can promise he's much worse." 

"Oh come on," Harry giggles. "It would be fun to see you two on an investigation." Louis sighs and considers his options. 

If Tyler did participate, Louis would have a reason to latch on to the beautiful hunk of a man for more than two minutes at a time. What? Hoechlin is pushing two hundred pounds at least in straight muscle, and Louis is gay. A very gay man who Tyler loves to cuddle with. Bringing him along would mean Louis wouldn't be the only one who was scared out of their mind. He's even have Tyler to annoy and cling to. 

Solid plan. 

"I'll call him and see if he's free this week. I just need to make sure his manager knows when and where he's going," Louis finally decides. 

Harry fist pumps in the air and chuckles. "Alliyah thinks it would be good to bring him to Waverly Hills Sanatorium. The entire location is basically a really big warehouse. If we bring him along to that, we'd have enough people to spread out. Liam and Luke with me. You and Tyler in an entirely different wing so we can get the whole property on footage." 

"You make it sound so simple, Styles," Louis teases. Harry ducks his head and blushes slightly. "I think you're overestimating how much Tyler and I can actually take in terms of ghost hunting," he snorts. 

"Well, get him in touch with my team and we will see how much you guys can handle," the ghost hunter replies. Louis hums. 

"Are you flirting, Mr. Styles?" he purrs. Listen, Louis can flirt, alright? He's an excellent flirt. Don't give him that look. 

Harry steps just a bit closer to Louis and shoves his hands in his back pockets. He shrugs and rolls his head back and forth to consider. "If I was, what would you do about it?" 

Louis smirks. "I'd tell you that I don't care how cute you are, we aren't doing this for the entire week," he drawls, speaking slowly, eyeing Harry's lips and collar bones. 

"The flirting, or the eye fucking?" Harry questions, cheeky little bastard. Louis barks a loud laugh and shakes his head, unlocking his car door. 

"Both, Mr. Styles," he says as he sets the important tickets and information in the backseat. "I expect to see you bright and early tomorrow morning for our flight." 

With that, Louis climbs in his car and starts the engine, driving away quickly before he turned around and did something stupid. 

* * *

Later that afternoon, Louis is sitting on his closet floor with clothes strewn around him and his suitcase open and demolished in his bedroom. He's surrounded himself with sweaters and hoodies while his phone is on speaker beside him. 

"Tyler, it'll just be for one night." 

"No."

"Maybe an eight hour thing, tops?"

"Nope."

"I need someone to hold on to and I can't just jump Harry's bones." 

"I said no, Louis," Tyler sighs. 

"Look, do you realize how terrified I am of going by myself?" 

"Oh wait, did you see that?" 

Louis scrunches his nose. "See what?" 

"How much I don't care." 

"Tyler Hoechlin, do this one thing for me and I'll get you in touch with Louis Vuitton's consultant. I know how much you want to shoot with them," Louis offers. 

The phone is silent for about thirty seconds before Hoechlin sighs loud and heavily. "If you try to pull anything to scare me, Tomlinson, I'll make sure the entire world sees the pictures from last year's New Year's Eve party." 

Louis gasps and clenches his jaw. "You promised me you'd never show anyone!" 

"Send me the fucking information and I'll call the kid." 

Louis fist pumps silently, his entire body relaxing. "Hey, Hoechlin?" he speaks. 

"Yes, Louis." 

"You're my favorite werewolf." 

"Yeah, well you're my favorite little shit." 

Louis smiles giddily after the boy hangs up on him, and texts him the information, sending Harry a quick message. 

_From Louis Tomlinson: tyler's in_

* * *

** **

Monday and Tuesday with Harry Styles on Haunting Answers: Queen Mary 

Louis adjusts the strap to his bag on his shoulder as he follows Harry and his crew across the bridge to the ship. It's much bigger than he anticipated, and looks more modern than the pictures online. In front of him, Harry is talking to a camera that's held in front of him.

"My name's Harry Styles, and today we're going to be investigating one of the most haunted locations on planet earth, The Queen Mary ship," Harry says, smiling happily. Louis internally whimpered, already scaring himself with Harry's words. "I'm very happily joined by Louis Tomlinson, who will be tagging along with the team for the next few days."

The night before, Louis joined Harry, Liam, and Josh on a trip to one of Harry's favorite haunted cemeteries in the area. It was just supposed to be a test run for Louis, showing him what was in store for the next week. At first, they just walked around in the dark at 3 am. Then, Josh decided it would be a good idea to pull out a Ouija board and try to summon something. Whatever he did must have worked because Louis didn't remember Liam ever moving his hands away from the camera. 

But lo and behold, as soon as Josh put up the board, Liam lifted his shirt to reveal three whelped scratches down his chest and torso. 

It's fine. Louis isn't scared. 

Okay, maybe he is just a little bit. 

Pulling out his phone, he sends off a message to Perrie letting her know he made it, and stuffs it back into his pocket when they reach the lobby. 

"Hello," Harry greets kindly. "I'm Harry Styles from Haunting Answers, we spoke on the phone?" 

The man behind the desk smiles and nods. "Yes sir, Mr. Styles. I have three rooms set up for you and your team. As requested, you, Mr. Tomlinson, and Mr. Payne will be staying in room B340, and the other team members will be staying in the two rooms beside it." 

Louis groans, knowing this night is going to be a total bust. He must have made enough noise for Harry to hear because when he looks up, the man is staring at him with a smug smile. 

"Lovely," Harry comments, eyes trained on Louis' distressed form. "Can you also get me the list of deaths in the room, please?"

Louis hits his head against the wall. 

The man hands the sheet over to Harry who looks overjoyed with the stories he gets to read. Around that time, three girls approach their group hesitantly. Louis offers them a smile and recognizes one of them from meeting them at the premier. Not bothering to pay attention to Harry or the crew, he waves at the three girls. Behind him, Liam gets the keys and heads to the rooms with the rest of the crew, while Harry stays behind with him. 

"Hi, Louis," one girl says shyly. 

"Well hello, darling, how are you doing this afternoon?" he greets, setting his bag down and stepping closer to the girl. She blushes and giggles. 

"My friends and I were wondering if we could get a picture?" she asks. Louis smiles bright and nods. 

"Of course, love. Shall we do a group photo and then one with each of you?" 

"Holy shit, Cody was right," another girl says. "You're the nicest person." 

Louis chuckles and pulls the girls in beside him. "Harry, can you take the picture?" he asks. Harry nods and takes the girls' phones, snapping one picture on each phone. After that, they break into doubles, the girls introducing themselves to Louis, and Harry snapping away, happily playing photographer. 

Once everyone had their pictures, Harry hands the girls' their phones. "So, I can't imagine three lovely women staying alone on this ship," he grins. 

"We watch these two youtubers named Sam and Colby," Maddie says. "We all love them, and thought it would be really cool to visit one of their scariest videos. They stayed in B340 a few months ago and said it was the most terrifying night of their lives. We were just able to save up enough money to come explore. We couldn't reserve the room because someone else got it first." 

Louis cackled and dissolved into a fit of giggles, Harry following right behind him. "Sorry, ladies, Harry and the rest of us are actually renting out that room tonight," he explains. 

Britt gasps, "Oh my god! You're filming Haunting Answers, aren't you?" she asks Louis. He holds his hands up in surrender. 

"You guys caught me. We weren't going to say anything until the end of the week," Louis nods. "We've got a lot planned for the upcoming series, don't we, Harry?"

Harry blushes and flashes them a grin. "We even have one of Louis' costars joining us later in the week." 

"Please tell me you're talking about Cody Christian," Maddie begs, clapping her hands happily. 

"Jesus, Maddie, he's in New York right now. I bet it's Niall Horan," the third girl, Ally, chides. "Niall loves this show." 

Louis snorts and pulls out his phone, scrolling until he finds Niall's messages, complaining about how he couldn't join him. "Sorry to disappoint, but you're going to have to think early 2012 tv show casts. Plus, here's proof it's not Niall." he turns the phone around and all three girls who squeal at Niall's name. 

Maddie looks to Louis with puppy dog eyes. "Can you give us a hint at who else is joining you?" 

Louis laughs and glances at Harry, who shrugs and smiles. "Do you guys remember when I went to a television show set back in the day?" 

Ally chortles. "Of course," she says, "you were on the Teen Wolf set for two weeks." 

"There's your hint," he finishes, watching the girls look at each other and try to put the pieces together. 

Britt sighs. "If it's not a Tomlinson/Posey reunion, I don't want it," she teases. 

"Wait, Sprayberry? Is he coming on the show?" Maddie asks. 

Louis shakes his head. Finally, it's Ally who gets it. "Oh my god, Tyler Hoechlin?!" 

Harry claps for her quietly. "From what Louis has told me, it'll be interesting to have him on." 

Britt nods and giggles. "He's such a baby when it comes to scary things. Just last month, Colton Haynes posted that video of him screaming when the balloon popped." 

"Oh dear god," Louis gasps, pulling out his phone again and going to Tyler's contact. "You girls reminded me that I never gave him hell about that." he giggles devilishly and calls the older actor, putting his phone on speaker for the girls to hear. He picks up after four rings. 

"Hello, Louis," he speaks, making Ally swoon. In the background, he hears Dylan O'Brien yell, "Hi, Louis! I love you!" 

"I love you too, Dylan!" he laughs. 

"To what do I owe this pleasure?" Tyler asks. "I assume you're with Mr. Ghost Hunter, yeah?" 

Harry snorts. "You'd be correct," he tells the phone. "Harry Styles, it's nice to talk again."

Louis turns his volume up. "We've actually just met some really lovely fans here at the ship who reminded me of a very important video running around online." 

Dylan snickers on the call. "Dude, twenty bucks says its about you blushing during that _Birthday Boy_ scene." 

"There's a video of that?!" Louis gasps. "Dylan, why have you been keeping this from me?" 

After that, Tyler steals his phone back and can't even get a word in to defend himself before Louis and the girls are harassing him over the videos. By the end of it, Louis and Harry can't breathe, they all have tears in their eyes, and the afternoon is sufficiently brighter. The girls get a picture with Harry, and then they leave, only after Louis swears he'll watch the Sam and Colby video once he gets to the room. 

Later, when they're getting situated in their rooms and getting camera equipment set up, Louis escapes to the bathroom to change out of his airplane attire and puts on something much comfier, and less smelly. Before he does that, though, he sits on the bed and watches Sam and Colby and their friends get scared. Harry even stops to watch a little with him. Once it's over, he sighs and prepares himself for the night, grabbing his bag to change. 

When he walks in the small bathroom, Louis notices the open shower curtain and promises himself a shower at some point. He takes out his toiletries and brushes his teeth quickly, only then noticing the instructions on how to do Bloody Mary. (Essentially, the game is played in the dark bathroom, running the faucet lightly and spinning around three times. After that, the player must say 'Bloody Mary' three times and wait for the spirit to appear in the mirror.)

With a snort, Louis finishes up at the sink and washes his mouth out before turning to his clothes. He fishes out a hoodie and pair of sweatpants, along with his favorite orange socks. He dresses quickly, and slides the hoodie over his head. Before he can slide the neckline over his head, the shower curtain jingles and his mouth wash falls to the floor. 

Louis doesn't scare easily. 

But with the intensity of the videos he's watched, and the way Harry talked about it, Louis jumps at the noise and hits his elbow against the wall.

"For fucks sake," he hisses. 

_ Did he hit that? _ Louis fixes the hoodie to find himself far enough away from the shower curtain, that's now closed completely. No, that's impossible. What the _fuck_. 

"Everything alright?" Harry calls from outside the door a moment later. Louis picks up his clothes and toiletries and stuffs them back into his bag, eyeing the curtain steadily, making sure it doesn't move. 

Louis opens the door to find Harry and Liam standing outside waiting patiently. "Mouthwash fell," he answers and shoulders past them. He goes to the bed and drops his bag, getting his phone on a charger. 

"We heard the shower curtain too," Liam says.

"Wasn't it closed when we first came in?" Harry wonders, sticking his head in the doorway. He motions for Liam to come look as well. Louis rolls his eyes. 

"I must have hit it when I was getting dressed," he explains. Louis really isn't up for any other kind of explanation. He hit the curtain. That's the end of the story. 

Once they're dressed and ready to go, Louis follows Harry and Liam out to meet with the rest of the crew. 

"So," Harry speaks, "since Louis is our guest for the week, we need to do some promotion shots, interview him some, and then we'll get started." A collective nod from the crew later and Harry smiles. "Great! The ship isn't ours for the night, but we do have free roam pretty much anywhere, so Liam's going to take over setting up cameras while I hang back with Lou." He turns to smile at Louis, to which he reciprocates. 

Five minutes later and Louis is back in B340 sitting on the couch, with cameras waiting for him, Harry and other crew getting ready. 

"Alright, let's do some promo shots first," the producer tells the room at large. He turns to Louis and glances at his clipboard. "Welcome to Haunting Answers, Louis, how are we feeling?" 

Louis clears his throat. "Honestly, pretty great. I'm excited to be here," he says to the camera. "Everyone here has been really welcoming." 

"That's great to hear," the man says. "Now, have you done your research about Queen Mary, or did you decide to go in blind? I know we talked about it." 

Louis chuckles and nods his head. "I did, yeah, yeah. I've never done this sort of thing before, so I wanted to know what I was getting myself in to," he replies. 

"Haven't you been the star of multiple paranormal movies?" Harry asks this time. 

Louis snorts, grinning at Harry. "It's very different knowing something's going to pop out at me, rather than idly waiting for something to happen. In movies, we know who's going where, and what's going to happen. With a situation like this, it's almost like your anxiety is building a bit with the anticipation." 

Harry smirks. "I do recall an interview you did with the Rolling Stone about your disbelief of the paranormal. Care to comment?" 

Louis feels his insides drop. It wasn't like the interview was popular, or that bit of it anyway. It was just a simple statement about why it's so easy to act in spirit-related movies. 

"Well, I, um," he stutters. "I had to learn at a pretty young age not to let that stuff get to me," Louis tries. "By telling myself that it wasn't real, I was able to relax about it. There's not really anything that scares me now." His heart is still pounding, and his voice may waver a bit, but he can't let this boy get the better of him. "Those movies can give anyone nightmares, so imagine teenage Louis trying to make it through scenes without screaming." 

The room laughs. He's back in control. 

"Interesting," Harry hums. "So, did you look into Haunting Answers? I assume your manager made you catch up on the seasons before." 

Louis was ready for this question. Of course he watched some episodes. And one thing he noticed, was the way Harry stuck each and every team member in rooms by themselves, including some guests, at the very beginning of an episode. Some episodes, the activity would be rather crazy, things falling and people feeling physical attacks. Others would be quiet, no activity aside from a quiet knock here and there. 

"Funny you should ask, Mr. Styles," Louis drawls, putting on the deepest northern accent he can manage. "I did watch some episodes, yes." 

"So you're ready to be locked up in this room for a bit by yourself then, yes?" Harry wonders. "It's always customary to have guests thrown in head first."

Louis laughs loudly and nods. "If you leave me in here alone, I might fall asleep," he teases. 

"Well then, I hope if there is something still roaming around this ship, it's enough to keep you awake." 

Which is why, twenty minutes later, Louis is mic'd and laying on the bed in the dark with a night vision camera pointed at him. As soon as Harry and the crew left, the room had been quiet. Abnormally quiet, but still, he welcomed the silence. After two more minutes, Louis sighs and turns the camera on to record, sitting himself up slightly. 

"Alright, I've been in B340 for about twenty, twenty-five minutes, and I haven't heard anything out of the ordinary," he tells the camera, hoping he's in frame. "Earlier in the bathroom, I was changing and thought the shower curtain moved, but I think I just hit it." He stops to take a deep breath, shivering from a slight chill despite the air being off. "I have this really weird feeling something's going to happen, ya know?" 

It's as if the universe is planning on ruining him. 

There's a sound in the bathroom. 

"Jesus Christ," he gasps lowly, rubbing his fingers over his eyelids. "I guess we're going to go check that out then, aren't we?" 

With shaking hands and a racing heart, Louis turns the camera around to the floor so he can see where he's going through the view finder. He manages to the bathroom easily enough, and opens the door. He pans the camera around the stall, only to find nothing out of sort. 

Then he pans the camera to the sink when the water turns on, just a slight trickle. 

"Oh no, no, no, no, no," he groans, fleeing the bathroom and closing the door hard. "Why does this only happen when I'm alone?" 

Louis walks over to the bed and picks up his walkie talkie Harry gave him. He inhales and exhales, trying to calm his nerves, and presses the button. "Hey, are you guys ready to move on?" he asks, voice cracking. 

Harry answers immediately. "Everything okay? The security cameras caught you in the bathroom but our audio is shot from out here," he says from two rooms away. 

Louis breathes deeply. "I heard some bumps or knocks in there and when I went to go check it out, the faucet turned on," he says slowly. _It's not real, it's not real, it's not real. _

"I'm on my way," Harry grunts. 

Thirty seconds later, Harry is walking through the door with Liam in tow, a heavy camera sitting on his shoulder. Louis drops his own camera on the bed and crosses the room to the door where he stands out in the hallway while they do a quick scan. 

"Louis, didn't you say the water was running?" Liam asks. Louis leans against the doorframe and nods. "There's no water in the sink," he says quietly. 

"It's all on my camera," Louis says. Harry flips the lights on, so Louis ventures to where his camera is and plays the footage back. When he gets it to where he wants, Louis hands the camera over to Liam and Harry so they can watch. After a few moments, Harry's forehead scrunches together, and Liam looks up at Louis. "What?" 

Harry gives the camera back to Louis and presses start. The video is seen of him entering the bathroom, but cutting off as soon as he goes to pan over the sink. 

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Louis grits. Harry chuckles and leads Louis out of the room. 

"Relax. It's your first investigation, so I'll explain what just happened," Harry tried. 

Louis sighed and stopped in the hallway, sliding down the wall to the floor. "Explain why the water turned on. Explain why the shower curtain moved earlier. Explain what the fuck is happening," he begs. Harry just smiles softly and sits beside him in the hall, Liam trained on their interaction. 

"Basically," Harry begins, pulling his knees to his chest, "what happened in there? I don't doubt you. The energy here is ridiculously creepy. I'm assuming there's a spirit who harnessed your energy in the room and killed your camera, and killed the audio in the room." 

It sounds so weird. "That's not possible," Louis mutters weakly. Harry bumps his shoulder. 

"I didn't think it was possible to get you on my show, but here we are," Harry grins. "I talked Liam's ear off for weeks about getting you to come film with us." He laughs a shallow laugh and leans his head back against the wall. 

Louis just. Louis doesn't know how to answer that. "You - what?" he says instead. 

Harry nods, Liam still taping the two of them. "You were so good in Whisper and The Exorcism of Jack Albat," he replies easily. "I loved what you did in the horror, psychopath movies, but the paranormal ones were my favorite." 

Louis blushes under the attention, and hopes the camera can't pick it up. "That - Thank you." 

"And really, you're doing me a favor by being on the show this week," Harry teases. "When they find out Louis Tomlinson is the next guest, teenage girls and boys across the country are going to lose their shit." 

Louis smiles and sighs. He stands back up and wipes off the back of his pants, adjusting his hoodie. "Well, let's go exploring, Mr. Investigator," he jokes. Harry laughs and pushes himself up, hooking his arm with Louis' as they set off towards the next location. 

* * *

"Alright, I know someone has to be messing with me," Louis snaps in the direction of the three knocks he hears. Harry shakes his head and shines his flashlight in the same direction. 

"The swimming pool has been blocked off for any and all interaction, staff and public," Liam replies. 

Louis groans and sits down on the edge of the pool, lowering his flashlight into the empty space. His body is covered in chills, goosebumps visible even on camera. "Someone needs to figure it out. If I hear something behind me, something else happens in front of me, and vise versa." 

Harry turns to Liam's camera and sighs. "Everything is kind of twisted right now. We're in the pool area, and the activity has been going on nonstop." He runs a hand through his curls and pulls it away from his face. "It's like you turn to look for a noise, and you hear something else right behind you." 

"It makes you feel like you're going crazy, mate," Louis states. Liam points the camera at him. 

"Louis, how are you feeling? You're handling it better than others probably would," Liam asks. 

With a snort, Louis shakes his head. "Like I said, I feel like I'm going crazy. I'm frustrated, exhausted, confused, everything, my friend." 

Harry clears his throat loudly. "Let's head over to the other side of the room, get us alone for a bit and let Louis relax," he suggests, steering Liam away with a soft, gentle grin only for Louis to see. 

He's frustrated is the thing. After the room, Harry led them all over the ship. They hid in small rooms and tested out technology, catching a few garbled voices here and there on the SB11 Spirit Box (Louis specifically heard a woman's voice say something along the lines of 'stay' and 'away'; up to the deck where Louis felt someone touch the back of his neck but no one was around to blame; the crew even made Louis and Harry both sit alone in one of the boiler rooms, catching what appears to be a grey mist traveling from one side of the room to the other on camera and multiple EVPs. 

The last stop they're making before going back to their room to investigate is the pool. Harry explained that a little girl, Jackie, is said to haunt the swimming area, leaving little wet footprints across the tile even though the pool has been drained for years.

As Louis sits on the side, he tries to come up with reasonable explanations as to why he hears noises everywhere, but can never catch anything concrete. Eventually, his thinking must be loud enough for one of the crew members, Luke, to join him. 

"This kind of thing doesn't happen everywhere," the boy says, pulling an EMF detector out of his pocket. Louis snorts at the scene, causing Luke to laugh. "Yeah, I know, is that an EMF in your pocket or are you happy to see me, I get that joke all the time." 

"Why do I feel like I'm going crazy?" Louis wonders. 

Luke shrugs and hands Louis the device. "Sometimes, this little thing goes off like crazy. Sometimes, it doesn't. The activity that happens is normally based upon the energy that we supply it," he explains. 

"So what you're saying is, we're all the ghosties' coffee right now?" 

Luke laughs loudly. "That's one way to put it. When I first started working with Harry, he was so sure of everything. We could walk into a building and his first words would be, 'This is going to be chaotic'," he jokes, dropping his voice down to match Harry's. "Now, since the show's gotten big, he keeps his comments quiet. Normally, if he does say anything about it, we all have to wait until the episode airs." 

Louis nodded, letting Luke's words distract him from his frustration. "It's really fucking frustrating to grow up believing in something, and some curly headed lad bursts in and changes the game," he admits. Luke nudges his shoulder. 

"My camera's off for the time being," he says seriously. 

Louis exhales deeply and sets the EMF reader down beside him. "When I was in my first supernatural movie, I could barely get through the script without turning and looking over my shoulder," he begins. 

He tells Luke about having to deal with nightmares for three years after his first big break. He explains why he's such an advocate for his mental health charity because he spiraled after being diagnosed with severe anxiety disorder. He shudders at the memory of being sprawled out on his front porch because drinking helped with the nightmares. He tells Luke about finally getting the help he needed for his anxiety, and learning coping mechanisms to help him get through his movie rolls. He finishes with why coming on the show was such a big deal for him: facing his fears. 

It was probably stupid, feeling the way he did about Harry's show. It's just that, ever since Louis found Haunting Answers, he'd shit talked the entire precipice. Ghosts weren't real, demons didn't exist, and it was all a fairy tale. He whined to Niall about how dumb the show was. 

But secretly, Louis was envious. 

Harry was brave, scouting out new locations to hunt through, sit by himself in dark rooms and wait for spirits to talk to him, has even been pushed down a set of stairs by an unknown force and jumped back up like it was nothing. He was always smiling, even when he was scared. 

Luke slings an arm around Louis' shoulder. "I'm going to tell you something Liam doesn't even know, alright?" Louis turns his head over to Luke and nods, the edge of his mouth quirking up just a bit. "The very first night we began filming, we were at the Biltmore Hotel in LA." 

"I remember seeing that episode," Louis says. "He looked terrified." 

Luke snorts, "That's an understatement." 

"What do you mean?" 

Luke looks over his shoulder to make sure no one was coming over. "Harry and I were doing sweeps of the presidential suite," he explains quietly. "Liam and the crew were setting up home base in another room for camera and audio footage." 

Louis snaps his fingers. "I remember that clip. Harry got stuck in the room's elevator right?" 

"Essentially, yes," he answers. "We had the door open, because we didn't read the instructions, and were trying to get it to work. All of a sudden the door just slams shut and the elevator goes up. We were stuck in there for three hours. I remember Harry sitting in the corner having a panic attack because he heard something in his ear before the door shut on us." 

"Jesus," Louis breathes. "Did he ever say what he heard?" 

Luke shakes his head. "No, and most of the footage from the elevator was destroyed per his demand. He still has nightmares about it, I think. Liam said he started taking a mild sedative to help him sleep peacefully." 

Louis doesn't know what to say. Harry has nightmares and has to take medication? All this time, Louis thought the boy was the embodiment of brave. But really, Harry was just like him. 

"Why did you tell me that?" Louis asks. 

Luke stands and offers a hand, which Louis takes and lets the boy pull him to his feet. "Because you and Harry are a lot alike. If you tell him what you just told me, I think it'd be a reality check for him."

"Reality check?" 

"You've a lot to learn this week." Luke stands and picks up his camera. "He doesn't understand that people deal with this kind of thing all the time. It'd be nice for him to know." 

* * *

It's 3:18 am and Louis is sitting with Harry alone in room B340. It's been an hour, but after what Louis experienced earlier that night, Harry wanted to be absolutely sure it wasn't a fluke. 

"So," Harry sighs, angling the handheld night vision camera on himself and Louis, "Louis and I are back in B340 alone this time. We haven't experienced anything just yet but the night's still young." 

"You might still be young, but I am not, young Harold." Louis leans back on the couch and watches as Harry turns the camera around to pan around the room. "Is it just me, or do you feel like someone's watching us?" he asks. Harry turns the camera on him and arches an eyebrow. "I just get this feeling in the pit of my stomach like there's something here." 

"Did you feel like this when you were in here earlier?" Harry questions, ever the good host. Louis shrugs, not denying it. "I definitely agree, but it's different than just feeling like there's one person watching. It feels like..." 

"Multiple people watching you?" Louis supplies. Harry nods and flips the camera on himself. 

"It's pitch black in here, so Lou and I can't see anything," Harry explains. Louis may die a little bit at the nickname but turns his face to hide his smile. "You know that feeling when you're in front of a crowd of people and can just feel them looking at you? It's kind of like that. My skin is crawling in here. I don't know how we're going to sleep, honestly." 

Louis barks a laugh, startling Harry. He giggles and says, "Mate, every light in this room is staying on." 

Harry snuffles. "Maybe we'll just go stay in the lobby," he suggests. "I'm sure Liam would be alright in here by himself." 

Harry walkie crackles from the table in front of the couch. "If either of you leave me in that room alone, I'll make sure the world knows about that very specific comment you made last week about - "

"Okay, Liam!" Harry squeaks, turning off the walkie and tossing it across the room. "That's definitely not making the final cut," he sighs. 

Louis snickers and brings his hand up to his mouth to hide his giggles. "You don't want me to find about your 'very specific comment', Mr. Styles?" 

Harry groans and sets the camera down facing them on the couch. "I'd rather not say anything while camera's are rolling," he replies, scrubbing the sides of his face with his hands. "Besides, we're supposed to focusing on the investigation and not my ridiculous comments." 

"Oh, so it must be about me then, no?" Louis guesses, shoulders shaking from trying to keep quiet. When Harry doesn't respond, Louis gasps. "It is about me!" he shrieks. "Come on, you have to tell me now." 

Harry whines and stands up, grabbing the camera on his way. "Alright, since Louis is being a menace, how about we go check out th - Holy fuck!" 

Louis jumps from Harry's voice, clutching at his chest and running over to where he's jumped to. "What the fuck, Harry?" he grips the back of Harry's shirt and steps right up against his back. "Jesus, fuck, why did I agree to do this?" 

Harry shakes his head and points to the closet. "I swear something just moved the robes in the closet," he explains, his voice shaky. "I don't know if I caught it on camera, but I promise those robes just moved." 

Louis leans around Harry's shoulders - very strong, hard shoulders, jesus help him - and peers over at the open door. Sure enough, the two white robes hanging in the closet were swaying back and forth. "Holy shit," Louis breathes, wrapping a hand around Harry's arm. "Please tell me you're getting that on camera." 

"Yep," he says. With his left hand, Harry takes it away from the camera and reaches behind him, finding Louis' hip. Louis inhales sharply at the touch but doesn't make any move to stop him. He squeezes just a little harder on Harry's arm, causing Harry to chuckle. "I definitely got it." Apparently, they're going to just tease each other all week. 

Louis snorts and drops his head to the boy's shoulder. "Twat." 

"Wanker." 

"How much longer do you want to stay in here?" Louis asks. 

"We haven't even touched the Ouija board." 

"Not happening." 

"What about the tarot cards?" 

"No." 

"Bloody Mary?" 

"Absolutely not." 

They play the stupid Bloody Mary game and catch absolutely nothing. Louis thinks he felt a hand graze his ass, but he's hoping it was Harry. No, he's _praying_ it was Harry. 

* * *

Louis grumbles and rolls over in the bed, kicking his foot away from the silent tickle monster. He mumbles out some kind of response and smacks his lips together. The attacker is still grabbing at his feet, so he kicks harder this time, but doesn't connect with anything hard. 

"Dear fucking - " Louis gasps loudly as he sits up and grapples up the bed. An older man, tall and ugly, stands at the foot, a devilish smile played on his lips. His eyes are dark in the lit room, but Louis can't even see the white of them. He lifts a boney, grey finger to his lips and whispers a _shhhh_, Louis frozen still. "Fucking Christ!" Louis yells as the man moves away and disappears. He takes a deep breath, staring at Harry and Liam asleep on the fold out mattress. They both wake up from Louis' noises, Harry sitting up and rubbing over his eye. 

"What the hell is going on?" he asks, yawning. 

"There was something - someone - my feet - his smile - " Louis rambles chest still heaving. 

Harry jumps out of his bed, leaving Liam bouncing on the mattress and makes his way to Louis. He sits down on the end of the bed, thankfully giving Louis the space he needs. "Hey, I'm not going to touch you or get closer, unless you tell me to, okay?" Louis nods and scoots over to give Harry room to sit beside him. "Take a deep breath in and then out," he instructs, breathing with Louis until he calms down enough to speak coherently. 

"Thanks," Louis sighs. He pulls his knees up to his chest and buries his head in his hands. Harry slides closer, wrapping his arm around Louis' shoulders and pulling the older boy into his chest. 

"What happened?" Harry asks softly. Liam gives him a long look and shrugs, tossing on a hoodie and exiting the room.

"You didn't have to send him out. It's weird how you do that thing with just your eyes," Louis says. 

Harry snorts. "Sometimes it's easier to talk about your first experience when you don't have an audience," he explains. "Do you want to tell me what happened?" 

Louis sighs and sits up, rubbing his eyes and moving to lay down with the blanket tucked up around his neck. "I thought you or Liam were grabbing my feet, but when I looked, there was this man. He was old, grey looking. His smile - Jesus, his smile is going to haunt me." 

Harry nods and traces his fingers through Louis' fringe, laying on his right side to face him. Louis smiles at the boy's touch and closes his eyes. 

"I can stay right here," Harry offers. Louis opens his eyes and peers at him cautiously. "I'll stay up for the next few hours until the team comes to get us all up. I'll even play with your hair until you fall asleep." 

Louis considers it for a moment. Technically, he really shouldn't get involved with Harry, especially after what happened before. Perrie would kill him for not telling her he was interested. Niall would never let him live it down. And his fans? What would his fans think? 

"Stay," he decides, sleep already pulling at his mind. Harry smiles and snuggles in under the covers, lifting his hand back to Louis' hair. "Just so we're clear, that thing when we saw the robes move earlier?" Louis asks. 

"It happened. And I'd be alright with it happening again," Harry whispers, just for Louis. 

Before he drifts to sleep ten minutes later, he feels the ghost touch of lips pressing against his forehead.


	3. The Stanley Hotel

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: I EDITED THE VERY END OF THIS CHAPTER. PLS ENJOY. IM SORRY IF I SCARED YOU ABOUT ANOTHER CHAPTER. I PROMISE IT'S COMING. 
> 
> Hello once more! This chapter is a bit shorter than the second one. I do apologize. For this one, you'll notice the crew is going to the Stanley hotel. All the stories I've included are real and have been proven. Please look into the story of Lucy and Mrs. Wilson if you ever get the chance. 
> 
> The cellar story was one that happened to me personally. I was looking into the tunnel with my phone flashlight while on a tour and saw two little girls. They did in fact say 'Come play with us'. I've never gone back since but I do really want to. 
> 
> The beautiful dears I've used in this chapter are Victoria, Luca, Cyndee, and Corinne. Thank you doves for letting me use you to make this story go by. One more note I want to make, while some of the claims and experiences sound fake or make up, you can look into each one and get the details for yourself. I have not experienced them all personally, so I wouldn't know if they're real or not. Remember that when reading this story. 
> 
> There's some more plot movement in this chapter I hope you all like. Basically, there really isn't any angst. It's all just ghost hunting and making out. 
> 
> OH! TYLER HOECHLIN WILL BE JOINING IN NEXT CHAPTER. I've really taken the time to consider my options when it comes to including certain characters. While there is some Cody/Louis action in this chapter, it's not to the extent that it will be next chapter with Tyler/Louis. 
> 
> Listen, the idea of Louis being really good friends with all the Teen Wolf cast members makes me so flippin happy and my tummy all whoosh. 
> 
> Tyler Hoechlin carrying Louis Tomlinson because he got tired of walking. like. THATS THE STUFF RIGHT THERE. 
> 
> okay enough rambling. pls enjoy.

** Wednesday and Thursday on Haunting Answers with Harry Styles: The Stanley Hotel  **

"Harry Styles, I am incredibly disappointed in you," Louis gripes as he and Harry walk up to the front doors of the haunted Stanley Hotel, the camera crew trailing behind them. Harry shoves Louis playfully, giggling as the cameras trail them. "Harry Styles has never seen The Shining, the very movie that was inspired by this incredible hotel we're investigating tonight." 

Harry rolls his eyes and drags his bag up the steps. "I know about the history of this place, but no, I didn't watch the movie because I didn't want it to influence my investigation," he explains. 

"How in the hell would it do that?" 

"If I saw the movie, I'd be expecting something to happen, and it's possible I could make something up that wasn't there." 

Louis nods and considers it. "That's...actually really smart," he replies. Harry beams from the answer and opens the door to let Louis in first. 

If he was surprised by Queen Mary, Stanley blew his fucking mind. It was so much bigger than he expected, even from the pictures alone. The lobby had a very old, classic feel to it. It somehow gave Louis a weird feeling, and a rush of excitement. Beside him, Harry was taking it all in as well, his eyes big and round like saucers as he cataloged each detail. 

The young woman at the counter, Victoria, helped check everyone in. "Mr. Styles, it's a pleasure to meet you," she smiles. "I've been a fan of yours for years now." The girl types away on her computer, getting everything ready. 

"Thank you...Victoria," Harry replies after looking for her name tag. "It's exciting to be here." 

"And you, Mr. Tomlinson, are you excited?" she asks Louis. He nods jerkily and leans against the counter. 

“I’m pretty excited, yes,” he answers. “First time being here, so I’m ready to see what the night brings.” 

Victoria smiles brightly. “Since you all will be staying here for the night filming, I’ve arranged for areas of the hotel to be closed off from guests.” Harry sighs in relief. “With that being said, there are still guests staying here in other rooms, so be mindful of that when you’re out and about exploring.” 

Harry nods seriously. “Each time I visit this hotel, you guys have been nothing but nice to myself and the crew. I promise, there will be no funny business.” 

Victoria chuckles and hands over their keys. “Here’s the key to 217,” she explains. “As you know, this is the most haunted guest room in the hotel. Stephan King harnessed his ideas for The Shining after residing here.” 

“You wouldn’t happen to know anyone working here who’s experienced anything in that room, do you?” Liam asks from behind Harry. The girl lifts her brows in a question. “It would be nice to get some stories from workers and staff for the show. The workers are here all the time, so they’d have the best turn out.” 

Victoria nods and pulls a binder out of her desk after setting all the room key cards down on the top of the counter. Pulling out the binder, she flips through a few pages before stopping and reaching for the phone. Louis glances at Harry as they wait, the shine of mischief evident in the hunter’s eye. 

“Hey, Joe,” she says into the phone. “Can you get me the numbers for Luca and Cyndee? Yeah, I have Harry Styles’ team here and they want to interview them for the show.” Victoria flashes a patient smile at Harry. “Yes. No, I haven’t. Yes, I told them. Jesus, Joe, I’m the one taking them into the cellar.” 

Louis mouths at Harry, _cellar?_

Harry nods with an evil smile. 

Louis takes the first step into room 217 and is hit with a smell. He crinkles his nose, rubbing at his eyes and coughing. It smells putrid, he thinks. It’s an older smell, like something rotting. It has a very specific sulfur scent to it, something you don’t smell every day. Louis’ constricts and he gags, reaching out a hand to steady himself on the wall. When he turns and covers his nose and mouth with his hand, finding Liam and Luke in the same state. 

“What the fuck died in here?” Louis asks, his eyes now watering. 

Liam sets his bag down and walks over to the windows, opening each one and letting fresh air filter in. “I’ll call the front desk and ask,” he says. 

Luke plops his bag on the bed and yanks out a bottle of cologne, spritzing it around the room. “Do you remember how I said Harry is really good about knowing when shit is about to hit the fan?” he asks Louis. The boy in question nods his head slowly. “Well, he’s not the only one with a good intuition.” 

An hour later, and 217 smells fresh like cotton in the spring, and the crew has done a steady sweep of a camera, EMF detections, and temperature gauges. Louis hangs back on the bed and watches them all work. 

Liam is essentially Harry’s right hand. Where Harry goes, Liam follows with various equipment readings. The man is quiet as he moves, whereas Harry speaks his actions, narrating them for the audience to see. When Liam gets a reading or a jumbled EVP, he stops everything he's doing and alerts Harry by sticking one finger up to his lips, which silences the entire room. The cameraman is strong, arms large enough to carry a thirty pound camera, but hands dainty while they hold equipment. From what Louis can tell, Liam is the quietest on set, but he's one of the most important.

Luke is to Harry what Niall is to Louis. As Louis sits back and watches as Luke constantly badgers Harry about one thing or another, he can't help but feel like he and Niall would get on nicely. The boy holds a different camera angle, a smaller night vision compared to Liam's. Luke's normally in the thick of things, keeping his camera posed gently in one area before it moves, sometimes attaching an EMF reader in front of the camera so the audience can see when it spikes. He's fearless, hearing a noise and walking towards it even if it's 3 am in complete darkness. 

Like Luke and Liam, there's one woman who goes by the name of Penny, who sits back in the control area and watches cameras from base, listens to audio in tapped rooms, and dispenses certain equipment when anyone needs it. She keeps everyone in the loop. If there's an audio of a little girl's scream in room A while the team is in room C, Penny would call and let them know so Harry could investigate. If there's a camera going in and out of focus with orbs flying every which way, she radios in, explaining the situation and Harry sends whoever's available. It's a good system, one that works for everyone involved. 

Morgan is another one of Harry's camera women. She captures the farthest angle away, normally positioning herself in a corner of the filmed room. She's tall, much like Harry, but carries an alpha male posture where Harry does not. She constantly gives Luke a run for his money, and almost always has something snide to say about Penny's comments about equipment, but Morgan is the kind of girl Louis would be friends with. Louis giggles to himself when the girl rolls her eyes at Penny's words about the EMF detector. 

Sometimes Louis just likes to sit in the corner, like he's doing now, and watch everyone work around Harry in a rhythm. The man is magnetic, electric in bringing people in. He's demure, soft and pretty, probably unaware of his own beauty. When Harry gets flustered with equipment - which only happens sometimes - his face gets splotchy and cheeks pink, and he throws his hair up in a princess bun before storming off to let Liam handle it. When he's focused, his eyebrows scrunch together and the very tip of his tongue slips out of his mouth, and his eyes never leave the task at hand. 

What Louis is trying to say, is that at the beginning when he thought he could handle Harry for the week and avoid temptation. He had enough self control to keep from crossing that boss/client line, he promised himself he wasn't going to get distracted. 

But Harry's like a god damn star. He's bright, illuminating, glowing inside a tight glass jar brighter than any lightning bugs. The boy's so smart, so incredibly knowledgeable in his craft of the paranormal and all that relates. From demons to angels, poltergeist to residual hauntings, and even Satanist to wiccan; Harry Styles is by far one of the smartest people Louis' ever come into contact with. He is full of life and gusto, making people gravitate towards him. 

Louis loves the way Harry's eyes light up when there's a noise, a knock, a boom. The way they light up right before they turn their cameras on for the lockdown investigation, Harry buzzing with excitement. The way Harry grabs all of his things and shoves them into various pockets and backpacks with a mischievous gleam in his eye one can only recognize with a child in a candy store. Harry's excited, always excited for the unknown, for unseen forces to make sounds with just the energy they can harness, for the idea of catching an apparition on camera to prove his theory. 

Louis loves the way Harry is unashamedly Harry. He loves the way Harry pulls him in by the belt loops and protects him. He loves the way Harry burns, burns, burns beside him with the strength of all the moons. 

But most of all, Louis loves the way he falls for Harry, slowly and then like a freight train missing it's mark. 

* * *

The good thing about Louis staying in a room with Liam and Luke, is that when he mentions he needs to step outside to make a phone call, the boys silently nod, pick up their equipment, and step out into the hall, shutting the door behind them. They don't ask questions, and they don't say a single word. Louis is grateful for those two boys. 

Once they've left, Louis pulls his phone out and goes to the alcove, sitting down on the soft cushion. He dials a specific number and listens as it rings three times before it picks up. 

"Louis, my dear boy," Cody sighs happily into the line. Louis smiles and chuckles despite himself, leaning his head back against the wall. "How's my gay fairy god mother?" 

"You don't know how good it is to hear your flattery right now," Louis admits, giggling just slightly. He scratches his eyebrow and groans. 

There's shuffling on the line and Louis thinks Cody is shifting in bed. Finally, it quiets. "Talk to me, Lou, what happened? Is it that Harry kid?" 

Louis grunts. "He's not a kid, he's a damn man, Cody, and he's out to get me." 

Cody barks a laugh, making Louis giggle slightly. "He's out to get you in what way, hm?" 

"With his hair and his eyes, and his hands, and the way he isn't afraid of anything, and the way he smiles at me sometimes when he thinks I don't notice, and the way he knows how scared I get sometimes and he sends Liam or Luke to stay close to me - "

"Jesus, Lou, take a damn breath," the younger boy interrupts. "You're going to make yourself pass out." 

_See: unfortunate foreshadowing. _

Louis sighs heavily and drops his forehead to the tops of his knees. "It's been, what, three days since I met him? And I feel like my head's going to explode if I can't touch him for more than five minutes at a time." 

"You've got yourself a little crush, babe, that's all it is," Cody says calmly. "You know it hasn't been just a few days, either. This has been going on for a while now." 

Louis huffs and rubs his eyes. "I can't tell him that, now can I?" he asks a little hysterical. "As far as he knows, I'm just another celebrity who's done a damn good job catching up on episodes before filming. And here I am, having watched every episode of the nine seasons he's put out on Netflix," Louis spits. 

"Louis," Cody warns, his voice dropping an octave. "Why did you really call me?" 

Louis sighs. "I'm sorry," he says quietly. "It's not your fault, and I'm sorry for taking it out on you." 

"What's really going on with you?" the boy asks. 

So Louis tells him. He tells him about the way he turned Harry away at the beginning of the week. The way Luke told him about Harry's nightmares and the elevator incident. He tells Cody about Louis having multiple experiences in one night, and Harry was there, never leaving his side. He tells him about the night Louis saw the ghost of a man, and Harry stayed in bed with him until morning playing with his hair and never once falling asleep. Louis tells Cody about the way his stomach flutters with butterflies every single time Harry is within touching distance, when he looks at him, when Harry's eyes shine with mirth and sometimes awe just by looking at Louis.

"Why haven't you told him yet?" Cody asks once Louis is finished talking. 

"Because I already made myself clear that nothing can happen while we're filming, no funny business at all," Louis replies. He glances at the window and looks down, watching as Liam and Luke follow Harry around the garden in the front filming promo shots. Harry motions around him, throwing his arms out and spinning in a circle before stopping and looking up, meeting Louis' eye. He waves, giggling at himself. "Oh, Jesus, this is worse," Louis whines, smiling back at the hunter and getting up from his spot. 

"I'm guessing Harry just did something?" Cody wonders from the phone. 

Louis runs over to the bed, jumping and star fishing across it. He lands in a humph, and groans loudly into a pillow. "He's like a god damn Disney Fairy, Cody. Tinkerbell, or something ghost related like Parriwhisper or Ghostia." 

"I like Parriwhisper," Cody chuckles. "Definitely fits him. Maybe instead of green and gold, his wings are a grey or black color, and his clothes are white?" 

"You're not helping," Louis hisses. "Thanks, now I have a paranormal hunter looking Tinkerbell stuck on replay." 

"I love you, Lou," Cody states. 

"I'm just going to aggressively ignore the Harry part of my life until it goes away." 

"That's not going to work, you idiot." 

Louis sighs and scrubs his hands down his face. "Do I make a move now? After everything I told him on Sunday?" 

"Here's what you do, the magic of my mind," Cody says. Louis giggles. 

"Give me your best." 

"Step one, kiss him," the boy explains.

"Alright and step two?" Louis snorts. 

"Step one, kiss him. Step two, sick his dick." 

Louis rolls his eyes and hangs up on the laughing boy. He does call back ten minutes later and listens to Cody whine about Sprayberry. When he gives the advice right back to him, Cody ends the call and doesn't call back. 

Louis was falling in love with Harry, and that didn't need to be discussed. 

* * *

Louis and Harry follow Victoria past a heavy metal door with a padlock on it. The crew tapped the area and set up cameras so they didn't have to carry the big ones in. Liam and Luke were off exploring the outer buildings, and Penny and Morgan were set up in the control room watching everything. 

"In here, as you notice, there are tunnel systems. These connect to all the buildings and areas of the property," she explains. "The tunnel systems provided a way to enter and exit the property for staff and workers here at the hotel. When it was first running, the idea of having the workers enter the same area that guests did was unreachable. Thus, the tunnels were born." 

Louis nods along to Victoria while she talks, taking in the details. He makes his way over to one of the smaller ones, peering in. He sqauts down and shines his flashlight in. As soon as his light hits the furthest little bend, a set of twin girls appear in the light, saying only once, "_Come play with us." _

Scrambling back, Louis drops his light and ends up against the furthest wall away from the cave. They were identical twins, brown curly hair, even wore the same dresses. They're smiles were the same, hollow just like their eyes. With a heaving chest, Louis accepted the help when Harry and Victoria are next to him to get him off the ground. 

"Should I just assume that you guys didn't hear anything?" Louis wonders. Harry snorts and checks over Louis, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Mate, I'm fine," Louis swats at the boy's hand. 

"We didn't hear anything, no, but I think our audio might have picked it up," Harry replies. He pulls out his walkie and says, "Hey Penny, get the audio in the cellar for the last fifteen minutes and call me if you find anything at all." He gets the affirmative and puts the walkie back in his pocket. 

"Mr. Tomlinson, are you alright?" Victoria asks easily. Louis shakes his head and then nods. 

"I'm fine, I promise. Just threw me for a loop," he says and goes to stand near the door. 

Once Victoria has finished her tour, Louis and Harry are joined by Luca and Cyndee, two staff members who've had experiences of no other. 

Luca takes them over to the concert hall, leading them around the side of the building and down to a creepy hidden door. Liam and Luke join them on their journey, panting and out of breath from running to the building. 

"So my coworker, Frankie, and I were headed down here cleaning up after some youtubers came down and trashed it. It wasn't bad necessarily, but it was really messy and chairs were everywhere," Luca explains. He gets a pair of keys and unlocks the door, letting the group go in ahead of him. "As far as we knew, a guest saw the boys run out the door and into the main hotel. I thought they'd trashed it, and got scared of being caught." 

Harry steps through the dark room and surveys, taking the night vision camera from Luke's hands and using it himself. Louis finds himself closest to Liam, subtly keeping his body angled towards the boy's arms. 

"Did you ever set up security cameras in here to see what caused the mess?" Luke wonders. He gets the EMF detector and starts scanning the area for spikes. 

Luca shakes his head. "Frankie got in touch with one of the boys and he said something happened down here that scared them more than ever," he explains. "He went off to find them while I stayed back and cleaned up in here." 

Harry goes to a mirror and starts taking pictures with his cell phone. "Did something happen while you were in here?" he wonders. 

Luca clears his throat and Louis doesn't miss the way he boy's hand itch from where they're hanging at his sides. "I know it sounds crazy, but I swear there was a little girl in here who left two lollipops. One blue, and one pink. I picked them up and went on, but when I turned around, they were still there in the same position." 

Louis shivers. 

"And Frankie, did he ever come back to help?" Liam asks. 

"Nope," the boy says, popping the 'p' sound. "I guess whatever that youtuber said got to him." 

Harry hums and continues looking around. By the end of stay in the concert hall, Louis has worked himself up into a shiver, Liam is trying to get him warm by rubbing his hands up and down Louis' arms, Luke is pale from fear after staring in the mirror for too long, and Harry is skipping back towards the hotel with glee from catching the kind of activity they did. Multiple knocks in different parts of the area, all different sounding. Harry was ecstatic. 

Cyndee's experiences were a different story. She sits with Harry and the team at a large table enough for all of them. She drinks her coffee while quietly, slowly explaining exactly what happened to her, where it happened, and for how long. 

When she was seventeen years old, Cyndee's grandmother and grandfather insisted she work here at the hotel. They'd worked there in it's heyday, and they wanted her to have that chance as well. It was nice when it started, according to Cyndee. She didn't have a busy schedule, so she could go to school during the morning, work all afternoon, and all day on weekends. She was paid really good money that helped her college fund. 

She ended up quitting the day she was pushed down four flights of stairs. 

As soon as the words left her mouth, Harry stopped her and explained that she could stop if she wanted to. With a shake of her head, she replied a quick no, thank you, and continued on with her story. Louis placed his hand on Harry's knee, providing a comfort. 

Cyndee was finishing up her shift one Saturday night. She was just polishing off a room that had been wrecked during a domestic dispute. The girl cleaned until her fingers were pruned, and cleaned up the spilled liquor, even getting out a drop of blood that stained the carpet. As she was making her way to the supply closet to drop off her cart, she heard a shrill noise near the staircase. She left her cart behind and ventured closer. From where she stood, if she leaned forward just an inch she could see the outline of a small child hanging from the banister. 

Unfortunately, when she tried to get a better look and scream for help, a pair of unseen hands were suddenly grapping her waist and shoving her down the stairs to the bottom floor. She broke two ribs, dislocated her shoulder and hip bone, fractured two bones in her face, and demolished a bone in her foot. 

It was traumatic for the poor girl, but here she was, talking about her experience like she meant for it to happen. She let slip that she suffers from nightmares, so she's been in counseling to help. 

When Cyndee gets up to leave, Harry wraps her in a hug and mentions the name of a woman Louis recognizes. The young girl nods and comes to Louis next, hugging him tightly. 

"You're the reason I came out to my parents," she whispers into his neck. "My wife, Corinne, and I love you very much." 

Louis pulls away and smiles, eyes watery for the best reason. "I tell you what, I'm hosting an event next month for my charity. How would you and Corinne like to come with and be my plus two?" he offers. Cyndee doesn't move for a moment, and then she's sobbing into Louis' neck with her arms wrapped around him. 

He manages to catch Harry's eye off to the side. It's gentle, easy. Fond, one might say. The hunter nudges Liam and the cameraman lifts his camera and films the interaction between Louis and the young girl. 

If the entire world gets to see him cry for this reason? Louis won't ever complain again. 

* * *

When Louis first looked in to the Stanley Hotel, one thing he was terrified of was the Vortex. It sits right in the middle of the hotel near the lobby. The Vortex is part of a staircase that takes guests to the second floor. Large windows cover the back wall furthest from the stairs. Line the walls around it, there are few pictures, but many, many mirrors. 

Harry explained to Louis that in a haunted location, when two mirrors are facing each other, it's worse than using a Ouija board. It can be seen as a never ending portal, a Vortex. If the two mirrors are situated perfectly, it will seem like an ongoing portal for infinity. Add this to a haunted location, plus eleven more pairs of mirrors, and you've got yourself an infinitive vortex, or a spiral of infinite energy. 

After Louis recovered from his revelations with Cody, he changed into some joggers and a pair of tennis shoes, adding a hoodie and beanie on top since it was cold in Colorado. Once he dressed, he went to find the rest of the crew. He found them downstairs at the diner, Harry waving him over and making him order something to eat. Over dinner, Harry kept a subtle touch of his leg against Louis' own, catching fleeting glances while the crew finishes their food. 

Which brings us to 3:18 am, with Louis sitting in the left-hand corner of the vortex right underneath a mirror, Harry to his left with the Spirit Box in his hand, and Liam and Luke sitting on the bottom stairs nearest them. 

"Is there anything here with us at this time?" Harry speaks into the SB11 Spirit Box. The box scans different radio frequencies, going through channels every second. It sounds like an old television going static, but every once in a while, you can pick up voices and sounds. On Queen Mary, Harry caught multiple voices. 

Liam switches frequencies, this time scanning backwards, and asks the same question. "If there's anyone in the room with us, can you please say hello?" 

The device scans some more channels before a sick and twisted _I'm here_ comes through the speaker. Louis gasps and reaches out for Harry, wrapping his hand around the boy's wrist. 

"That's great," Harry says patiently. "Are we talking to Lucy or Mrs. Wilson?"

Lucy the ghost is one of the more known spirits that haunts the halls of the Stanley. Legend has it, Lucy was a thirteen to fourteen year old girl who tried to hide out in one of the buildings on the property. Temperatures were dropping and she really had no where else to go. Unfortunately, staff members caught her and tossed her out into the freezing cold. Cooks for the hotel were said to have found her frozen solid and dead from the elements. She's a very innocent spirit, never causing harm. She's a trickster, moving lollipops and closing/opening doors. 

Mrs. Wilson was the tragic victim of a gas explosion that happened in 1911. Fortunately for her, she survived the explosion and went on to live a semi healthy life. Almost 40 years to the date of the explosion, Mrs. Wilson died of a heart attack in that very room. She's harmless as well, picking up after guests and folding clothes. Its creepy, yes, but not harmful. 

Louis shifted in his seat and felt his stomach churn. "If there's something here that's making me feel sick, can you come tell me your name?" Louis asks. Harry whips his head in the man's direction with a surprised, but impressed look. He sends Louis a silent questioning glance and Louis shakes his head. "Are we dealing with something else out of the vortex?" 

A very clear, loud voice booms on the speaker '_A storm is coming your way'. _

After sharing a confused look with Harry, Louis stands and announces a loud, "Nope!" before walking up the stairs, standing at the top and watching the rest of the crew try to contain their giggles. They get another voice on the box but can't make it out. 

Louis is just starting to calm down when Harry winces, bending over and holding the back of his neck. Luke stands and rips the device from Harry's hands, pulling the boy to his feet and lifting up his shirt. Even without the light of the camera, you can see three perfect, little lines that trail from the nape of his neck, all the way down to his left ass cheek. Luke gasps. 

"What? Did I get scratched?" Harry wonders, letting Luke and Liam manhandle him. Louis watches on silently, not daring to move a muscle. "It burns," he adds. Liam sets his camera down on a level where it still catches the scene playing out in front of it. 

"Alright, stop touching it or you'll confuse me," Liam says sternly. Harry goes completely still while Liam inspects the raised whelps. "Let's get you back to the room and we can bandage these up. We can always come back here later." 

Louis makes his way over to Harry and offers the boy his bottle of water, which he accepts gratefully. 

Back in the room 217, Louis turns the lights on for Harry and guides him to sit down on the bed. Liam had mothered him to death in his own room that he demanded Liam stay there, and he'd stay with Louis. The cameraman patched up any bleeding bit of the scratch and slipped him some Tylenol. 

"Thank you for doing this," Harry says, plopping down on the bed and reaching down to untie his shoes. 

"Not a problem, mate," Louis replies. Shit, _mate? Really? _

Harry hums and fishes his phone out of his pocket, placing it face down on the cabinet beside the bed. "Liam gets all mother hen when I get hurt during lockdowns," he explains. 

Louis tosses a shirt and pair of shorts Harry's way. "Isn't he the one always getting hurt through? It's always Liam getting scratched and pushed and shoved." 

He strips off his hoodie and notices Harry staring at him with a smug grin. "And you said you only caught up on a few episodes," the boy giggles. "You like this show, Louis Tomlinson." 

Louis snorts and shakes his head. "I've told you before, my mate, Niall, is obsessed with the show." 

Harry stands from the bed and makes his way closer to where Louis is stood, stock still. "You like ittttt," he sings. 

"I do not," Louis huffs. 

"You like the show," Harry repeats. 

"Nope." 

"You like me then?" 

"Obviously," Louis snorts. Harry smiles and steps right up to Louis, so close that Louis can feel the boy's breath against his cheek. 

"You like meeeeee," Harry drawls. "You like me and my show, but you like me the most." 

Louis takes a steadying breath and reaches up to tweak one of Harry's nipples. The boy squawks but laughs all the same. He grabs Louis' hands and holds them in front of their bodies. "I do like you," Louis whispers, looking up at him through his lashes. "I've liked the show for years - "

He doesn't get a chance to finish, because Harry is leaning down and kissing him roughly, capturing his lips. There are explosions, a million and one explosions behind his eyelids. Harry's lips are even softer than Louis expected, and his hands where they lay on Louis' cheeks, are calloused but still soft and gentle. The sound of their lips slipping together in the quiet of the room is addictive, and the breathless noises Harry whimpers is enough to work Louis up into a frenzy.

Louis pulls away from the boy first, catching his breath. All it takes is one look at Harry's blown pupils, flushed cheeks, and the heaving of his chest to wrap his hands around Harry's neck and pull him down into a kiss. The hunter slides his hands down Louis' sides, over his hips, and down to his thighs where he pulls him up. 

"You doing that shouldn't turn me on as much as it does," Louis whines. Harry grunts and walks Louis over to the bed, dropping him down on the mattress and covering his small frame. Louis smirks and wraps his legs around Harry's hips before rolling him over and pinning him to the bedsheets. "You can have literally any other night, but I'd like to take the reigns if that's alright with you," he says in Harry's ear, letting his lips trace the skin lightly, making Harry shiver.

"Whatever the fuck you want, Lou," Harry whimpers as he cants his hips up. Louis' cock twitches in interest. 

_Oh yeah, this is going to be fun, indeed, _Louis thinks as he takes Harry's hands and holds them above the boy's head with a devilish smile. 

* * *

The next morning, none of the crew members will look Louis nor Harry in the eye. After pestering Liam enough about it, the boy spills that the audio was still tapped into the room. While they did catch some voices from Lucy and Mrs. Wilson, they also caught the two boys 'knocking boot's' for an hour and a half. 

Louis isn't sorry. 

Harry isn't either. 


End file.
